Monday, October 24, 2011

Khuturam Sunani is reporting live from a Dalit rally in Nuapada district of Odisha during the Nuakhai festival. More than 5000 dalits are participating in the procession with their musical instruments. He says though it is a cultural rally to show their tradition but it is also a rally to assert their rights. For more Khuturam ji can be reached at 09437657625

---- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/

PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com

TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/

Uttam Gautam is telling us about a Dalit woman who was raped by a driver and she somehow escaped and saved herself. The villagers from nearby took her to police and helped file a complaint. But police has not helped her and have made her sign on a blank paper. A complaint to SC/ST commission and Women's commission has not helped. Her family has also now disowned her. For more Mr Gautam cane be reached at 09721813108

---- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/

PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com

TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/

NEW DELHI: The National Commission for SCs made a strong pitch for reservation for dalits, OBCs and minorities in the Lokpal set-up, a demand in sync with concerns raised by activists.

Commission chairman P L Punia told the standing committee on law and justice that reservation for marginalized classes was a must to ensure justice for these segments in any anti-graft mechanism.

Sources said Punia, who appeared along with former government advisor P S Krishnan, demanded that the proposed Lokpal should enlarge the definition of corruption to include violation of safeguards for SCs and OBCs and diversion of their welfare funds as malfeasance at par with corruption as understood in general.

Punia said the Lokpal set-up should have reservation at all three tiers - search committee, selection committee and Lokpal. He demanded that SCs and OBCs should be represented in the search committee which presently is proposed to include four judicial and four administrative members besides the chair.

The dalit watchdog's stance is crucial, as it is a constitutional body and a mandatory sounding board for decisions on dalit welfare. The parliamentary panel and the government may find it difficult to ignore NCSC's demand also because it echoes the call from activists and intellectuals from these sections.

Punia said Lokpal was important for dalit interests. He said the national panel that he heads has the power of civil court in a pending issue but loses its clout after the inquiry and cannot get its directions enforced. He said Lokpal would be a great help in securing justice for dalits if their grievances were made part of the definition of corruption.

Senior lawyer Rajiv Dhawan said the proposed Lokpal set-up was unwieldy, arguing that the selection panel and the final tribunal should not be large.

---- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/

PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com

TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/

Does the Congress have an ace up its sleeve? If Mayawati's surmise is to be believed, the Grand Old Party is planning to announce the nomination of a Dalit prime minister just before next year's assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

According to her, it can be either Meira Kumar or Sushil Kumar Shinde. However, prima facie, the former appears to be a better choice. But, whatever the relative merits, it is patent enough that any such announcement will unnerve Mayawati more than anything else.

At one stroke, her principal adversary would have severely eroded her only dependable base of support. If large sections of Dalits turn away, there is nothing that can prop her up, not least because there is little that she can show on the development front, other than gradiose, extravagant projects.

How nervous she is about this supposedly captive vote bank of hers was evident when she castigated Rahul Gandhi for spending time in Dalit homes, alleging that he washed himself with a "special soap" on returning to Delhi. That she could turn to whipping up the age-old casteist sentiments despite her claims to be leading a rainbow coalition showed that she banked on none other than the Dalits.

The announcement of a Dalit prime ministerial candidate will therefore put her at a serious disadvantage if only because she can no longer rouse the kind of ingrained animus among her core group of supporters that she can against upper caste opponents.

But it isn't Mayawati alone who will be foxed. None of the other parties will know how to react, for it is not easy to take up political cudgels against someone who can be India's first Dalit prime minister. The difficulty will be all the greater because Meira Kumar will be fulfilling her father's ambition if she succeeds.

The highest position which her father Jagjivan Ram achieved in his lifetime was to be the No.2 deputy prime minister after Charan Singh in Morarji Desai's Janata Party government of 1977-79. Otherwise, he never rose above the rank of a senior cabinet minister when in the Congress despite his reputation as an able administrator.

Meira Kumar, of course, does not have her father's stature. In fact, it is only as the Lok Sabha speaker that she seems to have come into her own, creating a favourable impression about her dignity and an aptitude for maintaining order in a generally unruly house. Her stint in the Indian Foreign Service seems to have enhanced her sense of decorum and restraint.

---- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/

PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com

TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/

JIND: A 27-year-old youth was killed and his body dumped in a canal after his relationship with a dalit girl was found out. The body was identified on Saturday.

The body of Krishan Nain, a resident of Amargarh village in Haryana's Jind district, was found in Narwana-Adampur-Sarangpur canal on October 18.

Nain fell in love with the dalit girl after they met at a wedding two years ago. He worked in a private firm at Narwana, about 30 km from Jind. Recently, they had decided to marry, police said.

A panchayat was held after the girl's family learnt about their relationship. The issue was resolved at the panchayat. The girl's family had decided to move out of Amargarh village and settle down in Narwana town. But, Nain continued to meet the girl.

"When Nain met the girl on October 17, her family members beat him outside her house. Nain went missing after that and his mobile phone was found to be switched off.

"The girl's relatives allegedly killed him and threw the body in the canal the same night," Nain's brother Gurdev told police. Gurdev had lodged a complaint at Narwana police station after which police registered a murder case against more than a dozen people, including the girl, her father Veer Bhan and brothers Pradeep and Sukhdeep, said Satya Prakash, Narwana police station SHO.

No one has been arrested yet. "The autopsy report shows Nain was strangled to death. Later, his hands and legs were tied and the body was stuffed in a nylon bag and thrown into the canal," said Prakash.

---- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/

PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com

TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/

Days after 100-year-old Fauja Singh of Indian-origin became the oldestperson to complete a marathon, a 102-year-old Dalit woman in TamilNadu has put on another display of centenarian vigour, winning a localbody election.Thadagathi was elected a ward member in Pudukulam panchayatof Madurai district, around 450 km south of Chennai, on Friday.

A state election commission official said she was the oldest electedmember in the local bodies in the state.

"Revered as Maruthuvatchi (village doctor conversant with traditionalmedicine), Thadagathi has excelled as a midwife, having had a hand inthe delivery of nearly 1,000 babies," said panchayat president PMuthuramalingam.

On her political debut, Independent candidate Thadagathi beat twocontestants 70 years younger.

"Vote for me, I will not swindle you or government money," wasThadagathi's door-to-door campaign theme in Pudukulam, where shearrived as a 10-year-old child bride.

Her husband died when she was 75 and she has outlived eight of her 12children. Her youngest son is 56.

Thadagathi is still sprightly and even works in the fields of herneighbour, lawyer S Muthuramalingam, and is at hand as a midwife whenrequired. "My first task is to see that there is peace in our village,and then to make the village clean."

First time ever, communities shake hands past TN's 'untouchability wall'Gopu Mohan Posted online: Mon Oct 24 2011, 02:49 hrsChennai : Two decades after the infamous "untouchability wall" came upin Uthapuram near Madurai, a influential backward community and Dalitssigned an agreement last week that may pave the way for a newbeginning in this village.

The Dalits will now get access to the Muthalamman temple in Uthapuram,where they were not allowed so far, and the holy tree in its vicinity.In keeping with another demand of theirs, land would soon beidentified and construction taken up of a bus shelter on the mainroad.

In the severely casteist rural heartland of Tamil Nadu, the Dalits ofUthapuram were not permitted to stand on the road to wait for a bus.Instead, they had to wait in the inner streets and run to the mainroad when they heard an approaching bus.

After the existence of the wall was brought to public and mediaattention by the 'Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front' threeyears ago, the then DMK government had reopened a road from the mainroad to the Dalit hamlet, which the wall had blocked. A portion of thewall was demolished on May 6, 2008, after the intervention of CPM andhuman rights organisations.

However, fearing reprisals from the influential Pillaimars, the Dalitsnever used the road connected them to the main road after the policeleft.

The agreement signed on Thursday at the district police office wasmade possible by the intervention of the district authorities,especially the rural police headed by Superintendent Asra Garg, whoheld a series of meetings with the elders of the two communities overthe past few weeks. "We involved their leaders not just from theUthapuram village but from the neighbouring region as well. Weimpressed upon them the need to resolve outstanding issues," Garg toldThe Indian Express.

Following the agreement, the cases against members of both thecommunities related to clashes between them would be withdrawn.

While there had been major clashes between the Dalits and Pillaimarsin 1948 and 1964 as well, the 'caste wall' came up after one suchconflict in 1989.

Five people died in the 1989 clash, following which elders from 18neighbouring villages met and decided that a wall be constructed tophysically separate the two communities. The wall came up right in themiddle of the Dalit hamlet, blocking their access to the main road.Only a small pathway was left leading up to the Dalit area inside thevillage.

They were not learning to be masseuses, but their teachers coerced them to give massages - punishing them in the most brutal manner if they refused.

This apparently took place at a state-run residential school for Dalit girls in Rajasthan's Barmer district. Following complaints from the hapless students, the district administration recently removed all the teachers and the warden.

In fact it has been learnt that the girls in the upper primary Kasturba Gandhi Residential School in Bayatu town - a special project of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan - were subjected to such torture and humiliation for quite some time.

Some time ago, it is said, when two girls raised their voice against the ill-treatment they were expelled from the school.

But as the agony became unbearable for the students, over a dozen students gathered courage and reported it to the district authorities last week. One of them said in her complaint to the district administration that when she refused the warden's demand for a massage, she was stripped in the bathroom and caned.

Inquiries revealed that the students were not given proper food and teachers had forced the girls to do their domestic work, Barmer collector Bina Pradhan said.

But the collector said it couldn't be proven if warden Kavita Chaudhary, sister of the headmistress Damyanti Chaudhary, had asked for a massage and assaulted the girl when she refused. Kavita and all the four teachers of the school were contract employees.

The collector said the contract teachers and the warden were removed, while the headmistress, who was on deputation, was sent back to her parent department. New staff will be appointed as soon as the school reopens after the Diwali vacation.

---- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/

PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com

TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/

BALASORE: Police on Sunday registered a case against some villagers of Jharanaghati in Balasore district for allegedly stripping a Dalit woman and beating her after accusing her of practising witchcraft.

Police said the residents of the tribal-dominated village, around 35 km from Balasore town, blamed Duli Hembram (40) for the recent death of two fellow villagers. "The villagers believe that Duli practices witchcraft and she was responsible for the recent deaths. Besides, they claimed she has been creating disturbances in the village with the help of one of her relatives whom the villagers believe is a tantrik," said SDPO Siba Charan Mallick.

The villagers dragged the woman out of her house, stripped her in full public view before thrashing her mercilessly even as she pleaded her innocence.

Duli alleged that the residents performed a puja in the village and thereafter they ostracized her before asking to leave the village. Traumatized and harassed, the woman has left for her parental house at Kaptipada in Mayurbhanj district along with her husband and children.

In her FIR, Duli claimed that though she went to lodge a complaint with Berhampur police, the officer concerned didn't take the report. She later met the SDPO who asked the officer-in-charge to register a case and investigate the allegation.

"The local sarpanch had later convened a meeting to convince villagers that Duli did not practise witchcraft. The villagers were pacified and agreed not to harass the woman again. But as she woman didn't feel secure to stay in the village, we advised her to go to her parental house for a few days," the SDPO said. "We have registered a case and efforts are on to nab the accused persons who have been identified in the FIR," he added.

A few months ago, two women were confined in a room by their fellow villagers in Nilagiri area on the suspicion that their husbands were involved in practising black magic.

---- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/

PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com

TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/

Lucknow: It pitched Mayawati against Rahul Gandhi and while the Uttar Pradesh administration may have dragged its feet in registering cases against policemen, alleged to have raped women in Bhatta and Parsaul villages, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Commission has now stepped in.

The chairman of the SC/ST Commission, PL Punia, has told NDTV that it will initiate contempt proceedings unless the Uttar Pradesh Police initiated immediate action on the Bhatta Parsaul rapes and registered FIRs.

"If an FIR is not registered in the Bhatta Parsaul case, it means the Uttar Pradesh government officials are indulging in contempt of court. The commission has powers to initiate contempt proceedings. Although the commission has never exercised these powers but it is willing to do so if an FIR is not registered," Mr Punia said.

For almost six months their ordeal during the violent farmer-police clashes in Bhatta Parsaul, which took place in May this year, went largely unreported. But now women are speaking out and alleging cases of rape against policemen, who cracked down on the protesters.

Says a rape victim, (name withheld). ''The day the firing happened (May 7) police forcibly entered our homes. Some stood outside our homes and some 3-4 policemen misbehaved with us. They forced themselves upon us and raped us.'' Another victim adds, "The day the firing began, the same evening police raped us. We went to the High Court and tried to register a FIR, but they did not register our FIR and now police keep coming back and threaten us.

One of the victims had filed a case of rape before the Station House Officer (SHO) of the Dankaur Police Station, alleging rape by the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) jawans deployed in Bhatta-Parsaul. However alleging police inaction they took the matter to court. A lower court ruling ordering an FIR be registered was then challenged by the state government. The matter was then taken up by Allahabad High Court, who then slammed the state government for its refusal to lodge an FIR.

Justice SC Agarwal of the Allahabad High Court had said the state government had no business to challenge the lower court's decision ordering the police to register an FIR on the complaint of the victim. The state government has so far denied the rape cases.

Despite the government's denials, the Bhatta issue is not likely to go away anytime soon and could play a major factor in the run-up to UP elections next year. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi first raised the issue during a visit to the twin villages of Bhatta and Parsaul. He claimed that locals told him that the police had raped women.

The tension between the police and the villagers stems from large protests by farmers who want the government to return the land that had been acquired for them for public projects. The farmers allege that the land they had surrendered had been passed onto commercial real estate developers and the government was making a profit. As protests broke out, police allegedly opened fire. Four people were killed, including two policemen.

---- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/

PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com

TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/

New Delhi: The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has suggestedexpanding the definition of the term corruption in the proposed LokpalBill by including issues like non utilisation and diversion of fundsfrom schemes meant for the welfare of STs and SCs.

It has also suggested that no judge or the Chief Justice should beeligible for appointment in Lokpal panel if he has "passed adversejudgement on important dalit issues".

In a communication sent to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Lawand Justice and Personnel scrutinising the Lokpal Bill, the Commissionis learnt to have said issues like non earmarking of funds underScheduled Caste sub plan and tribal sub plan in proportion torespective population should also fall under the definition ofcorruption.

SC Commission has said that members of Lokpal must be free from castebias. Reuters

The decision to suggest broadening the definition of graft was takenat a meeting of the full Commission held recently.

"Non formulation of schemes exclusively for the benefit of SC, ST; nonutilisation of funds; diversion of these funds for schemes other thanwelfare of SC/ST, deprivation of rights and safeguards provided in theConstitution and other laws passed by Parliament and state Assembliesand official orders and notifications" be brought ambit under thedefinition of corruption, the Commission has told the StandingCommittee.

It has also suggested that in the prescribed qualifications, aprovision should be added that Lokpal or its members "must be freefrom caste bias".

Commission Chairman PL Punia had recently appeared before theParliamentary panel.

Dalits ousted from village in Balangir Wednesday, 19 October 2011 21:57

BHUBANESWAR: At least 15 dalit families were allegedly thrown out of their homes from a village in Khaprakhol block of Balangir district, around 400 km from here, by upper caste families. Eighteen days after the September 30 incident, the dalits are still taking shelter with their relatives and are unable to return to their houses, a dalit outfit said on Tuesday.

Om Prakash Kumbhar, president of Lakshe Ghara Ganda Samaj Samiti, said the upper caste families attacked the Ganda (a scheduled caste) families in Ambabahal village, ransacked their houses and forced them to leave, suspecting them of indulging in theft, the allegation of which was found to be false by police.

Kumbhar, who led a fact-finding team of the samiti to the village recently, said a pregnant woman delivered stillborn twins while fleeing the village. The woman, Savitri Deep, and her husband Santosh are now taking shelter in a make-shift tent at a weekly haat, around 10 km away from their village.

The village had about 30 dalit families, who were staying in two localities. Sources said the village has witnessed a series of thefts in the past few months. The villagers had discovered two dalit youths moving in the area in a suspicious manner and presumed that they were involved in the thefts. "Police later found the two innocent," Kumbhar said.

Police said a case was registered against the alleged culprits under SC/ST Atrocities Act. Further investigations are on, they said.

---- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/

PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com

TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/